The tied game was not without its eventful moments. With 45 minutes remaining, senior midfielder Thebe Tsatsimpe was ejected from the field following his second yellow card, leaving the team a man down. Despite the challenge, they rallied to maintain the tie, never letting Bowdoin capitalize on their significant advantage.
Sophomore Spencer Noon attempted a memorable header with 10 minutes remaining in regulation, but the score remained 0-0 until the last whistle blew.
“I was proud of the effort that we showed once we were down a man on Saturday,” head coach Justin Serpone affirmed. “To play 45 minutes with 10 men and come out with a result is a great testament to the will of our team. The effort is not the concern, it’s the pure quality that we need to get better at.”
Despite the moderate disappointment of a season-opening tie, sophomore midfielder Jelani Rooks has a positive outlook on the games to come, especially this Wednesday’s against Gordon College.
“We got a tie this weekend, which isn’t bad, but we wanted to win. So Wednesday we’re fired up to get our first win.” He also added, “We could use as many fans as possible.”
The lessons learned from this weekend are fresh enough to continually motivate the team. Serpone went on to say that “Bowdoin is a good team that is going to be there at the end of the year. I thought they outplayed us for the entire game and deserved to win. We just flat out need to be better... from myself as the coach, right on down the line.”
“Our only goal is to win the next game,” Coach Serpone asserted. “We have an important game coming up on Wednesday against Gordon and that’s our sole focus at this point.”
Wednesday, Sept. 15, the Lord Jeffs take on the Fighting Scots at Hitchcock field. The turf undoubtedly belongs to Amherst, but whether or not the fans, and the team, will show up to back up that claim remains to be seen.